La Loi du désir

In what has now customarily become known as the New Queer Cinema, Almodovar's "Law of Desire" must be seen as a landmark film. Opening with a naked man masturbating and being guided through the motions by the disembodied voice of 'the director', this turns out to be something of a red-herring, though it does establish that the film's central character is a director, (Almodovar?), and that he is gay. What follows is a teasing Hitchcockain menage-a-trois murder yarn, (not mystery), in which the homosexuality of the protagonists is very much to the fore and is hardly seen as 'an issue', (a major breakthrough in what was a mainstream Spanish movie of its day). Indeed "Law of Desire" was the film which really established Almodovar internationally and while gay-themed movies were finally making their mark in 1987 few were quite as explicitly erotic or as pleasurably in-your-face as this.

Its cast was largely made up of what only be described as players from Almodovar's stock company and in a fine cast Antonio Banderas and Carmen Maura are the stand-outs; he as a pathologically disturbed 'fan' whose obsession with Eusebio Puncela's director leads to murder and she as the director's transsexual 'sister', a deliriously giddy performance and yet played mostly 'straight' by Maura.

If not quite as deep as Almodovar's later movies there is nevertheless much to enjoy here, (and although dealing with tragic issues Almodovar teases out the black comedy for all its worth). Now, of course, a great deal of the fun is in slotting the film into the Almodovar canon and seeing exactly where it fits in relation to the movies that followed it.

I once read that Pedro Almodovar wanted to reach out his audience via their hearts, their minds and their genitals, with this, my first experience with the director, he most certainly sticks to his aims. The film opens with a young man masturbating upon the orders of his director, from here on in the tone is set for what is, a bonkers, yet highly entertaining picture.

The plot revolves around the sexual adventures of gay director Pablo Quintero and his transsexual sister, Tina, her struggle with men and the duty of bringing up a young daughter who she fathered when she was a he!, still with me?. Into their lives comes Antonio Benitez, he's sexually fascinated with Pablo but gets his nose put out of joint upon learning of Pablo's love of another guy called Juan, things are about to get darkly unnerving.

Law Of Desire is stylish and full of tricky eccentricities, it's also very much in your face with its blatant urge to be seedy, however it's backed up by wonderful performances from Antoino Banderas {Benitez}, Carmen Maura {Tina} and Eusebio Poncela {Pablo}, whilst it's director is clearly a talent that was, at this time in his life, making films with attitude and a devil may care spirit. 7/10

One of director Almodovars early films--and one of his best. A gay writer is basically stalked by a psychopath. The films manages to weave together comedy, drama and tragedy and make them all work! Also it manages to work in fairly explicit gay sex scenes and male nudity without it being exploitative--it just fits the storyline and characters. The movie takes a serious misstep about halfway through, throwing in a murder, but manages to regain its footing. The acting is pretty good--not great. Antonio Banderas is so-so as the psycho. I give him credit for engaging in gay sex scenes with no hesitation (I'd love to know what he thinks about this movie now!). The best thing about the movie is the direction--even when the story bogs down in spots, there's always something to look at on screen. Almodovar knows how to make films look beautiful and he, somehow, manages to have the settings fit the tone of the scene. How many directors can you say that about. An excellent film--well worth seeing. But if you're offended by explicit gay subject matter, stay away.

I saw this film after having seen Bad Education, and there are many plot lines similar in both. I loved this film, not only am I a huge fan of Almodóvar, but in this film, the easy and simple beauty of the shots stood out. The acting was good, not amazing but good, particularly from Pablo and Tina. As well as directing beautifully, Almodóvar knows how to infuse a scene with sex, even if no sex is actually taking place-for example, when Antonio lights his cigarette of Pablo's. The film does become melodramatic towards the end, but I don't see this as a failing, melodrama, if done well, as it is here, need not be ridiculous

The most significant aspect of The Law of Desire is the fact that it was so accepted in Spain at the time of its release. It was put forward by the authorities as the movie to represent the country in 1987. Bearing in mind that Spain had only come out of a fascist dictatorship not much more than a decade earlier, this simple fact is a testament to how far the country had moved on in such a short period of time. The reason for this is that this is an unashamedly gay themed film, one that celebrates homosexuality and depicts it without issue.

The film itself is about a love triangle between three men. Like several other Pedro Almodóvar films it's a melodrama with thriller elements. It features an extremely daring performance by Antonio Banderas in a role where he is required to perform in some full-on gay love scenes. These moments made the film front page news in Spain but it did nothing to stop Banderas subsequent rise to stardom. For me, however, this is a middling movie. It's not amongst the director's best. In my view, its interest lies more in its historical significance as opposed to it's worth as a film.